A couple of weeks ago a teammate and I went for breakfast at a chai place that we normally go to. Over the
last months, I have shared the good news with the workers there a few times. I arrived a little bit earlier than
my teammate and sat down at an empty table. Shortly after, a very religious looking man came and sat at
the table next to me. I knew that I was supposed to talk to him, but I did not want to. I have had so many
conversations with men like this, that I knew how it was going to go. He would be very aggressive with his
own beliefs and faith and not give me any time to say anything.
Eventually, I got the strength from Jesus to start chatting with him, and sure enough the conversation
immediately turned towards spiritual things. My teammate arrived and sat down to join in the conversation.
As I had imagined, the man did not give us much time to talk and started to mock us for what we believed. I
felt very weak, and needed the Holy Spirit’s help. The Lord helped us to continue to listen. Whenever we had
a small moment, we shared something about Jesus. Another man from the same ethnic group came over
and joined the conversation. He cheered on the man in his aggressive invitation to us to join their faith.
I could feel frustration building up in my heart, so I asked Jesus to fill my heart with love. Then I looked up
and recognized that all of the workers in the café were gathering around to listen to the conversation. One of
them looked at me and gave me the biggest smile and a thumbs-up. I felt my heart melt. This conversation
was for them, most young men, not the big, tough religious man, although the Lord could certainly change
him too. The workers could see the way the man was treating us and saw the difference in the way we
responded with the love of God in our hearts. We certainly felt our weakness and were trembling, but we
were overjoyed with how the Lord put powerful, truthful words in our mouths about Jesus to testify before a
variety of men. Then the aggressive man got up to leave and I got up too, hugged him tightly, and thanked
him for the opportunity to talk about important things. We don’t always know what to do or what to say, but
the treasures of heaven are open to us, and most definitely in our weaknesses.
A young man in Asia